How can I set links when using custom tools in the dashboard?

Links can be defined on objects that you have on the dashboard, such that when you double click on the object, or right click and select links you can invoke them. These links can point at data items, dockables and tabs within the console, or external URLs. The effect of each of these is as follows:

• Data Item Link, for example it points a specific cell, a data view or an entity. When these are invoked the console will elect on the best way to display this item, this may involve showing the data view the cell is contained in, or showing a list view with the selected entity or path results and so on. Links of this nature will be of the form dataitem(/geneos/gateway/directory/probe/managedEntity[(state("severity")="3")])

• A Dockable or tab within the console, such that when invoked it will open that dockable and that tab, they are of the form geneos://component(Acitveconsole)/dockable(Dashboard)/tab(mydashboard)
   
• A URL, this will send the URL to the OS, which will elect the most appropriate action, they tend to be of the form wwwpage(http://www.bbc.co.uk)

The simplest way to add a link to a dashboard object is just to add it to the links properties of the tool

This link is essentially hard coded, in that it will not change until the URL is manually changed via the properties window. In the context of a user defined or custom tool this will also be true. Each time the tool is used the URL will remain the same (unchanged). For URLs and Dockable and tab links this is the only option. For Data item URLs when used in custom tools however it is possible to make them more dynamic which is discussed next.

Dynamic URLs in user defined tools

When designing user defined or custom tools it may be desirable that when that tool is used the link within the object then points at the data item that you dropped. This is possible, not by using a link (as we discussed above), but by using a modifier embedded within the tool. The following explanation assumes that you are already familiar with how to create custom tools

When you design your tool you should also add the following modifier

Link URL to Data item

and set the path to a dropped item path, which at the simplest would be

droppeditem()

Although you alter the path using the standard merge, replace and amend methods. At the point the tool is used the modifier will perform a one of operation and add the result of the droppeditem() path as a link to the object. By way of example you can import this tool